electrocardiogram (thing)

The archetypal normal electrocardiogram looks like this:

             |.
             ||
             ||
      ___    ||        .-----.
-----'   `--.'`.------'       `-----

       P    QR S          T
     wave  complex       wave

where the labelled features arise from the following events:

• P wave: atrial depolarisation
• QRS complex: ventricular depolarisation
• T wave: ventricular repolarisation

It is difficult to represent in ASCII.

Bibliography

• Sherwood, L. Human Physiology; West: Minneapolis, 2nd ed.; 1993, 274.